A warm Love Bytes welcome to Angel Martinez who stops over on her blog tour today

Welcome Angel 🙂

 

Hi Love Bytes! Thank you for having me over for Day 5 of the Restoration Blog Tour.

 

The Love Bytes crew asked me specifically to talk about the inspiration and genesis of this story. Fair enough. Those of you who know my work understand that this is a departure, or was since the writing took place several years ago. I write Science Fiction and Fantasy – stories of adventure and spaceships, magic and mayhem. While there are often serious issues in the substrata of my stories, or even in the characters’ lives, this story hits closer to home since it’s Contemporary and the couple could be living down the street. Not a selkie or altered human in sight.

 

So where did this come from, a story about the aftermath of sexual assault? I may have to back up a little bit here before we get to the actual angry reaction that sparked the story. Growing up, the understanding was that boys don’t get raped, girls do. So the boys were allowed to stay out late and go to concerts and so on, in sometimes not so safe areas, but not me. It wasn’t safe for me. Before I was even old enough to understand the real issues, there it was all around me. Boys don’t get raped.

 

Problem was, the more any aware young person sees of the world, the more we know some of these hidebound things our elders told us, statements from an older world where it was more acceptable to close your eyes, turn away, and pretend nothing happened, the more we realized they weren’t true.

 

This particular myth unraveled in college when a male classmate of mine was raped. He had been hitchhiking home from a party or concert, and the person who gave him a ride was a rapist. He wouldn’t report the crime, certain that the police wouldn’t care and wouldn’t believe him. But after that, his personality changed. He began to drink and cut class. He dropped out of school and we lost track of him. We were kids and stupid. The Internet wasn’t really a thing yet. If we’d had access to better information, if we’d known even a little of what to do, things might have been different. But they weren’t and I’ve been acutely aware of the issues surrounding male rape since.

 

Fast forward to 2005, listening to some radio talk show moron in the car (either because reception was awful wherever we were or it was someone else’s car – that I don’t recall.) But this idiot, in response to an op-ed piece in his local paper, was claiming, once again, that “men don’t get raped” and that if they did “they weren’t real men and probably gays who wanted it anyway.”

 

My head didn’t explode at that moment, but it felt like it could. The story that eventually became Restoration, titled Aftermath at the time, was sparked by anger, by disgust at media outlets who could still perpetuate such vile lies. Most of my stories are written with grand adventure in mind. This one—this is the only story I’ve written in anger.

 

If you have been assaulted, please reach out. You don’t have to go through this alone.

 

National Sexual Assault Hotline

800-656-HOPE

Restoration

by Angel Martinez

Mischief Corner Books

All Romance

Amazon

Blurb:

Victor and Cody have the American dream – a house, two cars, upwardly mobile income, and each other – but all is not well in paradise. Cody’s trust in other people’s goodwill led to one recent assault. A few months later, a friend’s betrayal leads to another. Battered every waking moment by fear and shame, all his joyful creative energy transforms into brittle, aggressive lashing out. Victor, wracked by guilt and shackled to a grueling, time-devouring career, must find a way to help Cody back from the darkness and to keep him safe from his self-destructive behavior. With the help of a common-sense therapist, some loyal friends and Cody’s own impetuous nature, their recovery and their relationship might even stand a chance. Please Note: This is a re-edited third addition with expanded content. (Formerly titled Aftermath)

 

REVIEWED BY VICKI

 

REVIEW:

Oh wow….

I offered to review this book on a whim, in a Facebook conversation, knowing nothing about the book other than that it was written by Angel Martinez, and that it had been published previously under the title Aftermath. I didn’t even read the description, I just knew it was contemporary, not sci-fi or fantasy like Angel usually writes, but it was written by Angel and that was enough for me. She did warn me in the same facebook conversation that it was about the aftermath a couple deals with after one of the partners has been raped. While this is not a topic I am happy reading about, to say the least, I decided I’m a big girl and can handle it. And I did. But damn…. It was hard to read. What a beautiful, emotional story.

This is not a romance story. This is a survival story. Cody and Vic have been in a relationship for some time. They each have very strong personalities, Vic is the strong nurturer, supporting them, working hard, providing a home, and caring for Cody in the bedroom and out. Cody is the wild child, the artist, the party boy, he loves dancing in clubs, and needs a bit of dominance in his loving. They both give and take exactly what they need from this relationship. But Vic is working a job that may not be what he should be doing, working hard and late, and leaving Cody alone too much. Cody makes some bad decisions, trusts the wrong people and is hurt badly. It is all Vic can do to get them past this.

It is not Cody’s fault at all, but I really wanted to lock him in a damn room! As an outsider watching this drama all unfold, we can see what is happening and what is coming and I so wanted to help, to fix it, to stop it. Angel has written these characters so well, I was totally invested in them. We do just jump in to this story, it’s fairly short, just 100 pages, and there isn’t background story at first. Some comes through flashbacks, which I loved, and the perspective jumps between Cody and Vic so we see in their heads, and can see the damage and the healing as it happens. It’s rough to read, we do see the drama and the trauma for both of them, not just the victim himself. Cody is afraid, mistrusting himself and Vic, and is very angry. Vic is hurt as well, not trusting he can protect Cody from the outside world or himself, and also angry. At the men who hurt him, at Cody, and at himself. But there is healing, and rebuilding of trust between them, everything I needed to see. I did need to stop at one point and confirm with Angel that this didn’t have a bad ending. I assumed it was ok, but I felt I needed some reassurance. So I will give a big spoiler here and say this does end well. It may not be strictly a romance novel, but Angel does follow the norm and ends this well.

As a reader of romance novels, both opposite sex (not many any more!), and same sex couples, I am used to having my stories be pretty. I can handle angst, drama, action, death, as long as I know it has a happy ending. I don’t like to read about rape or abuse in books, I don’t choose books that have non-con or humiliation in them. It’s painful and pulls me out of my romance happy place. But I think we need to see the ugly that comes with the pretty. I need to read books with rape and domestic abuse to remind myself it happens. Even in my happy place it happens. I do live a sheltered life, I’ve never been hurt physically, and I need to know that people do get hurt. Not only by strangers as happens in this book, but by the people they love and trust as well. We can’t forget that this happens. To men as well as women.

It feels odd to say I loved this story, given how much of a part rape plays in it, but I loved the writing. Aside from the drama and what happens to Cody, and Vic as well, it was a very good book. I like them as characters. I like them as a couple. I wish I had met them under happier circumstances. This book is not all about the aftermath of the rape of Cody, it’s also about the restoration of him. Also of them. It certainly has drama, but it also has a bit of humor, a bit of bondage, some good sex scenes, and is a great example that healing and recovery are very possible. It’s a powerful story, well worth reading. As usual Angel writes an amazing story, I’d read more contemporary stories from her!

RATING: 

 

About the author:

 

Angel Martinez is the erotic fiction pen name of a writer of several genres who writes mainly Science Fiction and Fantasy with gay heroes. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware, (and full time inside the author’s head) Angel has one husband, one son, two cats, a changing variety of other furred and scaled companions, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate.

For more information on Angel’s work, please visit:

Website: Erotic Fiction for the Hungry Mind

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Angel.Martinez.author

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1010469.Angel_Martinez

Email: ravenesperanza@yahoo.com